Gregoire's CleanTech Blog

La Française d'Eoliennes annonce un financement de 70m€

La Française d’Eoliennes, acteur de référence dans la production d’électricité d’origine éolienne en France, annonce aujourd’hui l’obtention d’un financement de 70 millions d’euros auprès d’un syndicat de banques espagnoles, dirigé par Banco Sabadell et composé de Banco Santander et Caixa Catalunya.

Un financement remarquable
Autant par sa taille - qui en fait le financement éolien le plus important réalisé en France sur l’année en cours - que par les caractéristiques du syndicat bancaire auprès duquel il a été obtenu - il s’agit du premier financement réalisé par des banques espagnoles sur le marché français de l’éolien - ce financement est révélateur de la forte attractivité du marché éolien français et de la solidité des garanties présentées par la
Française d’Eoliennes.

Il permet la poursuite du développement du site éolien de la Voie Sacrée (Meuse), qui comprendra à terme 27 éoliennes de 90 mètres de diamètre, 125 mètres de hauteur (hors tout) et d’une puissance de 2 MW chacune.

Le constructeur espagnol d'éoliennes GAMESA a été choisi pour équiper ce site, qui sera également sa plus importante réalisation en France.

Alors que l’aménagement du parc est actuellement en cours de réalisation, l’installation des premiers aérogénérateurs est prévue très prochainement pour une mise en exploitation qui débutera au cours du premier trimestre 2007.

La Française d’Eoliennes, premier producteur d’électricité d’origine éolienne en France. Représentant une puissance de 54 MW, le site éolien de la Voie Sacrée sera le plus grand parc éolien français. Il permettra d’éviter l’émission dans l’atmosphère d’environ 60 000 tonnes de CO2 par an et génèrera assez d’électricité pour pourvoir à la consommation d’environ 58 000 foyers chaque année (hors
chauffage).

Avec un total de 103 MW en exploitation, la Française d’Eoliennes deviendra, avec la mise en service de ce site, le premier producteur d’électricité d’origine éolienne en France.

Des experts en project finance des énergies
Banco Sabadell, leader espagnol en financements structurés, avec une agence (full branche) à Paris, a une longue trajectoire dans le financement de Parcs Eoliens et dans d’autres projets d’énergies renouvelables.

Avec cette opération il démontre son intérêt dans le marché français autant pour le soutien de promoteurs espagnols que français.
A propos de la Française d’Eoliennes : Producteur indépendant d’énergie renouvelable et acteur de référence dans la production d’électricité d’origine éolienne en France, la Française d’Eoliennes se caractérise par une stratégie fondée sur l’intégration de tous les métiers de son activité : elle assure le financement, l’exploitation et la maintenance des parcs éoliens qu’elle a elle-même développés. Au 30 juin 2006, la Française d’Eoliennes disposait de 49 MW en exploitation et de 66 MW en construction.

Un rapide point sur le programme nucléaire chinois

L'agence "Chine nouvelle" dans son édition de mardi, indique que le gouvernement chinois envisagerait de construire une centrale nucléaire sur le fleuve Yang-tsé, à l'est du pays.

Cette centrale nucléaire serait construite à Bamaoshan, à 60 kilomètres de la ville de Wuhu, dans la province de l'Anhui, et son coût s'élèverait à 46 milliards de yuans (5,8 milliards de dollars).

Elle fonctionnerait dans une première phase avec deux réacteurs, puis avec quatre, et atteindrait alors une capacité de production de 4 000 mégawatts.

Une étude de faisabilité est en cours, indique Chine nouvelle, sans fournir de date potentielle pour le début des travaux au cas où Pékin approuverait le projet.

L'industrie nucléaire chinoise produit actuellement 7 000 mégawatts, auxquels devraient s'ajouter 2 000 mégawatts fournis par deux réacteurs de fabrication russe dans la province du Jiangsu (est) qui devraient être opérationnels dans les prochains mois.

La Chine, encore largement tributaire du charbon pour ses centrales électriques, cherche à diversifier ses sources d'énergie et a l'intention de porter à 40 000 mégawatts sa production d'électricité nucléaire d'ici 2020.

(src : Chine nouvelle)

XeroCoat Pty Ltd développe un film de silice mésoporeuse pour augmenter le rendement des cellules photovoltaïques

Un revêtement anti-reflet et anti-buée "XeroCoat" développé récemment à l'Université du Queensland permettrait d'augmenter l'efficacité de captage de l'énergie solaire des cellules photovoltaïques d'environ 8%.
XeroCoat est un film de silice mésoporeuse, c'est-à-dire une couche en silice amorphe avec des pores de diamètre ajustable entre 2 et 10 nanomètres qui sont répartis périodiquement. Il possède une surface spécifique supérieure à 300 m2/g et un indice de réfraction faible (1,28 dans le meilleur des cas). Le film, qui est dur et permanent, peut être appliqué sur divers supports comme les verres et les plastiques. Le procédé de fabrication en phase liquide et à température ambiante est simple et peu coûteux.
En utilisant cette technique, la société XeroCoat Pty Ltd, entreprise dérivée de l'Université du Queensland, a fabriqué des cellules solaires bon marché. Des essais réalisés en enduisant ce film sur une des plaques de verre qui encapsulent la cellule photovoltaïque montrent une augmentation de la transmission de la lumière de 3% et donc de l'efficacité de la cellule.
Les autres applications qui exploitent les propriétés anti-réflectives du film portent sur le traitement permanent de surface telles que les pare-brise et les miroirs.

Source : BE Australie

Oser Entreprendre : Naskeo

Oser Entreprendre : Naskeo
Vidéo envoyée par galadjidi

Entreprise rencontrée ce matin lors de la conférence Capital 4E. Société montée par de jeunes centraliens qui développent des stations écologiques de méthanisation permettant, aux entreprises agro-alimentaires, pharmaceutiques et chimiques, de valoriser leurs effluents et déchets organiques en énergie renouvelable. Bon courage !

A good summary of several US marine technologies : Verdant Power, Ocean Renewable Power Co., Aqua Energy, Ocean Power Delivery

In the quest for oil-free power, a handful of small companies are staking claims on the boundless energy of the rising and ebbing sea.

The technology that would draw energy from ocean tides to keep light bulbs and laptops aglow is largely untested, but several newly minted companies are reserving tracts of water from Alaska’s Cook Inlet to Manhattan’s East River in the belief that such sites could become profitable sources of electricity.

The trickle of interest began two years ago, said Celeste Miller, spokeswoman for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The agency issues permits that give companies exclusive rights to study the tidal sites. Permit holders usually have first dibs on development licenses.

Tidal power proponents liken the technology to little wind turbines on steroids, turning like windmills in the current. Water’s greater density means fewer and smaller turbines are needed to produce the same amount of electricity as wind turbines.

After more than two decades of experimenting, the technology has advanced enough to make business sense, said Carolyn Elefant, co-founder of the Ocean Renewable Energy Coalition, a marine energy lobbying group formed in May 2005.

In the last four years, the federal commission has approved nearly a dozen permits to study tidal sites. Applications for about 40 others, all filed in 2006, are under review. No one has applied for a development license, Miller said.

The site that is furthest along in testing lies in New York’s East River, between the boroughs of Manhattan and Queens, where Verdant Power plans to install two underwater turbines this month as part of a small pilot project.

Power from the turbines will be routed to a supermarket and parking garage on nearby Roosevelt Island.

Verdant co-founder and President Trey Taylor said the 6-year-old company will spend 18 months studying the effects on fish before putting in another four turbines.

The project will cost more than $10 million, including $2 million on fish-monitoring equipment, Taylor said.

“It’s important to spend this much initially,” Taylor said. “It’s like our flight at Kitty Hawk. It puts us on a path to commercialization, and we think eventually costs will fall really fast.”

If all goes well, New York-based Verdant could have up to 300 turbines in the river by 2008, Taylor said. The turbines would produce as much as 10 megawatts of power, or enough electricity for 8,000 homes, he said.

With 12,380 miles of coastline, the U.S. may seem like a wide-open frontier for the fledgling industry, but experts believe only a few will prove profitable. The ideal sites are close to a power grid and have large amounts of fast-moving water with enough room to build on the sea floor while staying clear of boat traffic.

“There are thousands of sites, but only a handful of really, really good ones,” said Roger Bedard of the Electric Power Research Institute, a nonprofit organization in Palo Alto, Calif., that researches energy and the environment.

“If you’re sitting on top of the best scallop fishing in the world, you can’t put these things down there,” said Chris Sauer, president of Ocean Renewable Power Co. in Miami. The 2-year-old company is awaiting approval for federal study permits in Cook Inlet and Resurrection Bay in Alaska and Cobscook Bay and the St. Croix River in Maine.

Other prime tidal energy sites lie beneath San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge and in Knik Arm near Anchorage, Bedard said.

Government and the private sector in Europe, Canada and Asia have moved faster than their U.S. counterparts to support tidal energy research. As of June, there were small facilities in Russia, Nova Scotia and China, as well as a 30-year-old plant in France, according to a report by EPRI.

“I expect the first real big tidal plant in North America is going to be built in Nova Scotia,” said Bedard, who led the study. “They have the mother of all tidal passages up there.”

The industry is coalescing over worries about dependence on foreign oil, volatile oil prices and global warming.

Many states have passed laws requiring a certain percentage of energy from renewable sources, and tidal entrepreneurs believe they will be looking to diversify beyond wind and solar power.

Elefant said the industry is still trying to figure out how much energy it will be able to supply from tides, as well as waves.

“While ocean energy may not power everything in the U.S., it will be functioning in tandem with other renewable resources and supplement other sea-based technologies,” said Elefant, a lawyer in Washington, D.C. “The most important thing is for the nation to invest in a diverse energy supply.”

In the United States, wave energy technology is less advanced than tidal and will need more government subsidies, Bedard said. However, the number of good wave sites far exceeds that of tidal.

Wave power collection involves cork or serpent-like devices that absorb energy from swells on the ocean’s surface, whereas tidal machines sit on the sea floor.

Tidal energy technology has been able to build on lessons learned from wind power development, while wave engineers have had to start virtually from scratch, Bedard said.

But a few companies are working aggressively to usher wave power into the energy industry.

Aqua Energy could start building a wave energy plant at Makah Bay in Washington within two years, said Chief Executive Officer Alla Weinstein. Another wave plant, whose backers include major Norwegian energy company Norsk Hydro ASA, is under construction off the coast of Portugal.

Miller said the commission has received applications for three wave energy permits in Oregon, all filed since July.

With the uptick in interest in tidal and wave energy sites, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is holding a public meeting in Washington on Dec. 6 to discuss marine energy technologies. The meeting can be viewed on the commission’s Web site.

Source : CleanEnergy

Video du jour : C dans l'air sur les bio-carburants

C dans l'air - Les bio-carburants
Vidéo envoyée par analogue

Pour ceux qui l'ont raté, Yves Calvi interrogeait à l'occasion du salon de l'auto Elie Cohen, Pierre-Olivier Savreux, Jean-François Giannesini et François Clémenceau sur les développements des biocarburants et d'une façon plus générale l'automobile de demain (hybride, tout électrique...) ça ne vole pas très haut (ah les méchants constructeurs et les méchants pétroliers...), mais bon, ça n'est pas inintéressant !

PV Market turns from a sellers market into a buyers one - Interesting, there is consolidation in sight...

The solar energy market and industry have been experiencing a price decrease in solar modules since the second half of 2006. Based on its contacts with suppliers and the activities on the Trading Floor, SolarPlaza experienced a price fall of 10% or even more compared to just a few months ago. More and more companies are offering (large) quantities of modules. It seems as if the acute module shortage which was limiting project development has vanished. Is this just a temporary development, or could this be the start of continued price decreases? Let’s look at 3 major trends in the market and their possible implications.
Considerably lower sales in Germany
The German market will consume considerably fewer modules in 2006 compared to last year. Precise figures are still not available, but everybody within this market is convinced. The feed-in tariff has decreased 5% at the start of this year. At the same time the module shortage was rising to its peak with prices rising. Simple financial calculations showed that PV installations and, moreover the larger free-field power plants, were no longer as attractive as they were the year before in 2005. Simply count the new large projects inaugurated in Germany in 2006: fewer large power plants means significantly fewer MW. The impact is accordingly: with Germany being the world’s largest market, a drop of 10-15% in module sales means some 100-150 MW of modules can be sold elsewhere, and the predictions that can be heard within this market are: sales of 600 MW or even less in 2006 instead of the 730 or more in 2005.
Continued strong production growth
With the continued strong global growth in production capacity and production of cells and modules, the production of modules has risen further compared to 2005. The shortage of silicon did not seem to affect this development too much. New cell manufacturers have started production and seem to be able to obtain wafers. This must be additional quantities, since no breakdown of any cell manufacturer has been reported so far. It seems the semiconductor industry has found its way to make better profits by moving to solar wafer and cell production. In this perspective it is no coincidence that semiconductor nation Taiwan now already has 7 solar cell manufacturers. So, with more cells and modules and fewer sales in Germany, where do all the modules go?
Slow growth of module sales in rest of the world
Based on our contacts and market research, these modules do not all reach Spain and Italy. Although both very promising markets, they are not yet taking up even 100 and certainly not 150 MW of modules this year. The sales in these countries will be less than 50 MW each, related to both administrative and bureaucratic issues. The world’s third market, California, is just at the beginning of a new and promising era of market growth and secondly-ranked Japan is going strong but not with any serious market growth. The conclusion is that more modules should be available on the market. And this has of course an influence on the price.
What will happen next year?
Chinese existing and new manufacturers are ramping up production capacity in cells and modules. More silicon is expected to be produced next year in the world, specifically in China. Which markets will consume these silicon, wafers, cells and finally modules? Not Germany it seems. The feed-in tariff will be decreased another 5% as regulated by law. Furthermore, a revision of the German feed-in tariff is planned in 2007. Therefore, the German market can only become attractive again with much lower module prices. At least another 10% less seems necessary to create market opportunities for solar systems bringing an acceptable financial yield for investors. Without a price decrease this market will only shrink once more. One way to stimulate the growth of module sales for the industry would be a significant sales price decrease. Other indicators could enhance this development as well. There are already more than 70 cell and more than 230 module manufacturers in the world. The larger and stock-listed producers will have to show their shareholders growing numbers for sales and market shares. And as other markets have shown: if you can’t sell more, you either lower prices to increase sales or you buy other companies out of the market. Both of these developments can put a serious pressure on the market prices. Small companies will have to make serious efforts to keep up with the larger corporations. The question is whether these companies will be able to get their hands on cheap wafers and cells or whether they will have the financial resources to lower their prices and margins to go along with the market.
And there is another visible trend which is putting pressure on the smaller manufacturers. The growing attention for product quality and (financial) reliability and sustainability of PV companies. Like the Huerta Solares projects in Spain, more and more large multi-megawatt PV projects are being developed. In this price-unstable market, the developers purchasing modules not only want to do business with companies offering the lowest prices, they also want to be sure that the seller will still be there in 10 years to fulfil product warranties.
Further price decrease after 2007
Will the smaller cell and module manufacturers be able to survive price decreases after years of heavy investment? Will this be the beginning of a consolidation phase? The enormous growth speed of the bigger manufacturers will definitely require maximum efforts by the smaller ones to keep up within this unstable market. They could become fodder for the larger companies to strengthen their local market positions or, even worse, break down if prices fall faster and margins melt like snow in the sun. And prices could fall further after 2007. The new silicon production capacity currently being built could bring considerably more solar-grade silicon on the market after 2007. That means that, finally, the enormous surplus of cell and module production capacity can be used. This could lead to further price decreases since it is not unthinkable that the global market growth will not be high the coming 2 years.
Modest market grow in 2007
It is uncertain what will happen with the feed-in tariff in Germany with a revision coming up in 2007. If continued as it is now, the growth will depend very much on the required lower module prices to pump up this market again. Japan is growing modestly and an explosive growth does not seem likely in the coming year. The world’s third market, California, is very promising with its new incentives, but has only just started. Experience in other markets shows that it takes time to educate a market before really big sales numbers can be achieved. Look for example at Spain and Italy. Already in action with good incentives for over 1 year, they could start growing seriously, but are currently showing some uncertainties related to revisions of the feed-in tariff. Many other new markets might pop up (France, Canada, Greece), but they will not be able to consume big numbers of megawatts in their early years of development. Therefore, for the long term, the global market development looks great.
Consolidation seems likely within the coming years
Based on the above scenario, in the short term a consolidation within the supply chain could take place. Would it matter if the ‘big guys’ with access to large amounts of capital take over some ‘smaller guys’? With continued price decreases achieved by large-scale and optimized production, solar modules will become more and more a commodity product. Therefore, in the end, concentration and consolidation in the supply chain will have a positive effect on market prices and therefore competitiveness of PV with other energy sources. And that is what all stakeholders want to achieve, because then the markets and business opportunities will really take off for PV. In the development of the solar energy market and industry, the current market phase could be the start of a new era in the development of photovoltaic energy as a major energy source. As foreseen by several industry experts, photovoltaic energy systems could even become a price-competitive energy source within the next decade.
Chinese solar industry dominance?
Within this consolidation phase, the Chinese manufacturers have an interesting advantage. As with other products (toys, computers, cars, etc.), the Chinese manufacturing industry seems to be very competitive compared to industries in western countries. Moreover, western multinationals have build up their manufacturing facilities in China, most often in joint ventures with Chinese companies. Government incentives, tax advantages, cheaper labour, plenty of capital, enormous numbers of highly educated people, and a culture and spirit to work harder and longer, provide competitive advantages that are hard to beat. Their strongly growing energy consumption and programs to stimulate domestic use of renewable energies will further enhance the Chinese solar industry. All these developments make it worthwhile to keep a close watch on what will happen in the Chinese PV industry over the coming years.
The solar industry seems to be at a turning point in its development. Global production capacity is rapidly growing and shortages in the supply chain are vanishing. Prices are decreasing again, turning the market from a sellers market into a buyers market again. The expected consolidation phase could create a good starting position for a new era heading towards solar energy as a price-competitive renewable energy source.

Source : SolarPlaza

Pluie de batteries

Pluie de batteries
Vidéo envoyée par ringrp

Lorsque Solon AG fait sa pub...A quand des spots comme celui-là chez nous ?

SunEdison and SkyPower team up to build, own and operate up to 50MW of solar PV farms across Ontario

SunEdison LLC of Baltimore and SkyPower Corp. of Toronto are teaming up for a joint venture that plans to develop, build, own and operate up to 50 megawatts of solar PV farms across Ontario, obviously to take advantage of the province's standard offer program that pays 42 cents per kilowatt-hour for solar. I knew it was only a matter of time before some clever finance people crunched the numbers and figured they could make a business out of solar in Ontario. Considering the largest solar PV installation we have in Canada is only 100 kilowatts (likely to grow to 2 MW), this 50 MW commitment from SunEdison/SkyPower is a huge deal and could spark more activity.

"Construction of these solar photovoltaic farms in Canada will drive immediate new job growth while generating carbon free renewable energy. Common in the European market, only recently have solar photovoltaic farms begun to see broader adoption in North America," the companies said in a statement. "Under the turn-key services model, SunEdison finances, installs, owns and operates photovoltaic power plants at the customer premise. SunEdison's turn-key services model has been adopted by leading commercial, government and utility customers such as Staples, the State of California and Xcel Energy."

The companies added: "Once the Ontario government's standard offer contracts are implemented, the joint venture will be announcing the location of its first facility."

Source : CleanBreak

EEStor Inc. builds an energy storage device that could finally usher in the era of the electric car

Here is an interesting article about EEStor Inc, this canadian start-up company which is supposed to have developped a disruptive energy storage system for electric car. They have teamed up with another start-up company, Feel Good Cars Corp, to promote ZENN, a zero emission new concept car. But, above all, EEStor would have received a $3m investment from Kleiner Perkins...

Anyway, it seems that many questions remain about their genuine technical achievements.

Interesting to follow.